Complicated
by Moya-chan
Summary: Her Taichou was a complicted man... Beggining or Arrancar arc. In human world Matsumoto finds her Taichou unsteady, disturbed by something she can't figure out. HitsuMatsu


**Fandom:** Bleach (I do not own Bleach, yadda yadda yadda... Owned by Kubo Taito)  
**Title: **"Complicated"  
**Pairing: **Hitsugaya / Matsumoto  
**Rating:** PG-15 or R, I guess. For some... shower situations, but kissing is the boldest thing in there, so no worries.  
**Warnings:** Spoilers to early Arrancar arc, bit of angst, no beta reader (and since I don't speak English for every day I guess it has grammer/tenses mistakes... gomen)  
**Summary:** _"Her Taichou was a complicated man..."_

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Her Taichou was a complicated man.

However Matsumoto Rangiku didn't want to really admit it, she never managed to fully figure him out. Sometimes it seemed like she almost, almost caught up with his strange behavior, reading between the lines of his actions, deciphering all those small glances, the way his brow wrinkled or the corner of his mouth twitched in slight shadow of taunting smirk. Still, there were few things she did know for sure and one of these were that 10th division captain was a very prideful man.

He was older then he looked like, naturally, all shinigami were, and one could think that at his age he already knew how to deal with the loss at battle. Admitting his own fail was hard, yet he possessed enough battle experience and wisdom to acknowledge that he had been defeated.

Usually, he did.

"Taichou?" She asked softly as she approached him on the roof of Orihime's house. He was seated on the edge of it with his back at her, feet dangling slightly in air. He was still wrapped tightly in bandages that Inoue had brought from her first aid kit while treating everyone wounded in battle with Arrancar. Her steps were slow, as if to give him time to react, to sense her presence. Hitsugaya said nothing, but she knew he recognized her just by her reiatsu.

"Taichou, it's cold out here." She knew how stupid it must have sounded; he was a wielder of the most powerful ice Soul Cutter after all. Cold and ice was his force of nature, he was so familiar with it that it almost merged with his body. Sudden silly thought crossed her mind that this perfectly explained why his hands were always freezing cold, even in the middle of summer. "Please come inside."

The gigais they used were perfectly made, as Urahara kindly pointed out, counting in even the lack of resistance to human diseases. Rangiku never wished for both of them to catch cold, even if her Taichou didn't feel the low temperature around them.

There was no reply, but she saw muscles of his neck shift a bit, as if he was about to say something, yet words couldn't pass the barrier of his mouth. She sighed in silent resignation and turned around, going back to Orihime's apartment, leaving the door slightly open for him; soft smudge of warm light from the inside as an open invitation.

Something was eating him from the inside, she could feel it. His reiatsu was disturbed, somewhat messy and that rarely happened to the genius child of Gotei 13.

Her Taichou was hurting and she could do nothing to help him.

She went inside, noticing that Orihime already was sound asleep in her own room, so she gently closed her door, giving her peace for her well deserved rest. Slowly she slipped into her spare clothes for sleeping, a spaghetti-strap top and cotton pants. She was dead tired, but decided to wait until her captain comes inside, just to check if he plans to fall asleep at all.

He finally did come down from the roof, carefully closing the door behind him not to disturb anyone and his eyes widened a slightest bit when he noticed that his vice-captain wasn't asleep yet.

The room they shared was small, two beds, desk and tiny wardrobe barely fitting in it and for a moment Rangiku could swear she saw his eyes looking at her body. The sinister movement of his eyes stopped after split second as he turned around, grabbed his sleeping clothes and moved to the bathroom.

She could hear faint sound of shower running and could see some steam slipping under the door; She couldn't help but to be lulled to sleep by sound of water and she closed her tired eyes for few minutes, just for a little while...

Matsumoto's eyes fluttered open ten, maybe fifteen minutes later and with slight surprise she noticed that shower was still on. Weird enough, for the past few days that they had been in human world she noticed it took him minimum time to get clean and he never occupied the bathroom for too long. He never even took baths, as the shower was suppose only to clean him up enough to take a bath, yet she didn't see him taking this opportunity.

Wrinkling her brow Matsumoto got up from her bed and padded barefoot to the bathroom door, knocking softly few times.

"Taichou?"

Silence. She expected a growl of disapproval or maybe even yell, if he really was in as bad mood as he seemed.

"Taichou?" She knocked again and again she got no response. Gathering her will and preparing for angry outburst, Matsumoto grabbed the doorknob and pressed it. To her surprise the door wasn't locked and after second of hesitation she stepped inside steamy room.

Her Taichou was naked.

No, not really naked, she noticed, there was white towel wrapped around his hips as he was seated on the provided stool, again with his back turned to her, as well to the shower streams.

He must have noticed her entrance, yet he showed no reaction... again.

Matsumoto gasped softly as she noticed his back. Apparently he turned on only hot water and now it hit his back like a scorching hot whip, leaving his normally pale skin in color of dark red.

Was he even aware of the pain that must have been there? Nobody could not hurt from that almost boiling water... Was he spacing out? Or maybe... maybe he was doing this on purpose?

Whatever the reason was Matsumoto was not allowing this to continue any further.

She took that three, four quick steps towards him and dropping to her knees she wrapped herself like a shield across his back, her arms circling his own. She hissed as hot stream hit her back ferociously, but she held on.

Her Taichou was more important then her own comfort.

Only when he heard her hiss of pain he finally snapped back to reality, one hand reaching in front of himself to turn the shower off. As soon as it stopped he grabbed one of her arms wrapped around his shoulders. She did not let go.

"Matsu---"

"It's ok." She interrupted him, already sensing what might escape his lips. "I'm fine."

She slowly eased herself away from him, yet didn't break the contact entirely, still holding onto his shoulders. Another look at his back made her scowl with discomfort. Her own felt almost as bad.

"Let me go, Matsumoto." He whispered, his tone surprisingly pleading. She refused and again held him close, cautiously, so she wouldn't hurt his burning skin. She knew he felt her chest pressing into his back, her smell all around him... and for once she did not care that she might be disturbing him.

He sighed, rubbing back of his head in slight discomfort. It was rare for Rangiku to see him with his hair down, all damp and messy and she fought the urge to run her hands trough it, just to feel if they are as silk as she always imagined.

"What happened, Taichou?" She whispered into his ear, supporting her chin on his shoulder. Suddenly it didn't feel awkward for them anymore, despite the fast that he was almost naked and she was pressing herself into his back.

"I was thinking."

"About?"

"It's... complicated." He ran his hand trough his hair again, messing it up even more.

He still kept that bottled up, still refused to tell her what had been bothering him for past few hours. Matsumoto closed her eyes in resignation.

"Take the bath, Taichou." She slowly got up from her knees, feeling them a little bit numb from all that kneeling. "I will wash your hair for you."

At first he tried to protest, but after few fruitless minutes of arguing he finally gave up. Rangiku turned around, pretending to look for shampoo on the bathroom's shelves, only to give him time to drop the towel near the tub and sink into hot, but not burning water.

She was still wet from the shower, but decided to just put a towel over her shoulders to dry her hair a bit, as she sat gracefully on the wide edge of tub, just few inches behind him, and ran her hands trough his hair.

At first he tensed visibly, not really sure of how to react to her touch, but soon enough, once her fingers started rubbing slick shampoo trough his hair, she felt him ease a little and sink inch lower into pleasantly hot water. Few moments passed and Rangiku's lips formed a small smile as Hitsugaya made soft sound of comfort and approval, shifting slightly into her touch. She tried to keep her moves gentle, almost as afraid to scare him off, pressing lightly trough white locks and massaging his scalp in delicate circles.

She was right all along, despite their spiky appearance his hair was silky and heavy, flowing trough her fingers. She took a sponge from the nearby shelf and used it to rinse his hair clean, carefully tilting his head back to protect his eyes from the shampoo.

Her Taichou was looking at her with intensity in his eyes like she never knew before.

Rangiku did not protest when he raised his hand from warm water and rested it on her neck, pulling her close to gentle kiss. She did not protest, why would she? Her damp hair shielded their faces like a veil.

He pulled apart, way too soon for her own liking, apparently confused by his own actions. Rangiku said nothing and Hitsugaya silently thanked her for not adding any comment to what he had just done. Instead of that she took the sponge again and using the milky white soap she proceeded to washing his shoulders and back.

Skin was red, maybe even a bit swollen, definitely burned in few spots and emitting slight heat, much opposite to rest of Hitsugaya's body, usually few degrees lower then normal human's. Rangiku tried to keep her pressure as low as possible, since she could see his discomfort. His face was blank, but occasional twitch of his brow revealed her that he was in pain. She was, after all, very good in reading his behavior.

She watched as his muscles shifted underneath that burned skin and strained arms. Hitsugaya's body was a weird fusion between body of boy and man, his frame still resembling those of teenager, yet he had muscles of steel. His arms were thin and his shoulders were not so broad, but she knew how powerful they could be when he swung his Soul Cutter at the enemy.

She finished cleaning his back and decided not to move any further and give him some rest before he will be ready to tell her what was wrong. Rangiku stood up from the bath edge and still carrying the towel wrapped around her neck and shoulders, she left her white haired captain alone in the bathroom.

She sat on her bed after changing her clothes. Already managed to dry her hair almost completely before he finally came out from other room. His hair was still wet, plastering to his face and clinging damply to back of his neck. To her surprise, he was clad only in his black cotton pants, his sleeping t-shirt in his hand. Matsumoto scowled a bit. Was his back bothering him that much?

"I was afraid."

She snapped back to reality at sound of his voice, small and kind of shy in the silence of the room.

"Afraid?"

He nodded, but beside that he didn't move at all.

"Not afraid of the Arrancar, nor pain or loosing."

She sat a little bit more upright on her bed.

"I saw you fall. Not the first time, if I remember it right."

"Taichou..."

"Don't call me that." He hissed with hint of anger in his voice and before she realized it he hovered above her, one knee supported on her bed, both his hands pinning her own wrists to soft mattress underneath. She gasped and stared at him with wide eyes, for few seconds fear flashed trough her like an electric impulse.

"How can you call me your captain when I can't even protect the woman I care about?"

Rangiku held her breath and then the soothing wave of tenderness washed away all her fears. This was probably the closest thing to confession she could ever get from him.

"Taichou" She whispered with affection, taking almost sadistic pleasure at the confuse in his eyes and felt his fingers twitch on her entrapped wrists. "My Taichou..."

She felt him kiss her again, this time a bit more roughly then the kiss from bathroom, but she didn't mind at all. He released the death grip he had on her hands and she carefully ran them over his back, slowly, not wanting to hurt already bruised skin. She felt him whimper slightly into their kiss and she couldn't help but think he sounded cute. He would kill her if he could read her thoughts.

Rangiku's hands now tangled into his hair, his arms encircled her waist. Before she realized she was craving for his touch, for his attention. Hitsugaya didn't seem to mind at all, as he kissed her harder.

Maybe, just maybe...

Her Taichou might have not be so complicated after all.

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Traditional showers in Japanese houses usually are just to rinse clan the body before taking a proper bath. Not closed in cabin like showers we know, one can freely shift from shower to bath in few steps. Since baths were filled only once for whole family to use, you had to be already cleaned when stepping into it, hence the shower first.


End file.
